Method and machine for treating fur



Jan. 22, 1929,

M. LAZOW METHOD AND MACHINE FOR TREATING FUR Filed June T5 Z INVENTOR' 1 MENDEL LAZOW- )IMWMQ%IIEY Patented Jan. 22, 1929.

UNITED STATES.

MENDEL LAZOW, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

METHOD AND MACHINE FOR TREATING FUR.

Application filed June 24,

The invention relates in general to a method for treating the hair side of certain common grades of fur to change their appearance, to an apparatus for practicing such method and to the resulting product.

The primary object of the invention is to produce from an inexpensive grade of fur an artifically produced design, which will simulate in appearance the flower or character which identifies a more desirable and therefore more expensive grade of fur.

It has been known heretofore to treat fur artificially for the purpose of causing it to resemble a different grade of fur.. Usually this is attained by cutting or clipping the hair to some desired form, such for instance as cutting straight or smooth haired skins to resemble Crimean or Persian skins. It has also been suggested to dampen the fur, roll it onto so-called curling rods to set the curl into ridges, and it has also been known to subject spaced apart portions or Spots of such skins to high pressure for the purpose of compressing irregular circular, portions of the hair while permitting other portions to remain impressed and thus give a certain s otted formation to the hair side of the skin. These known methods are commercially impractical in any attempt to produce a flower resembling the natural product, among other reasons due to thedifiiculty in properly shearing the hair in those methods which involve any cuttingof thehair; and methods which depend upon the .rolling or pressing of the as skin do not give a permanent set to the hairs. In all known prior art the design flower, or character gradually disappears in time and in general the artificiality of the product is quite apparent.

of an entire area of the fur under the action of heat and pressure and in the presence of With reference to the apparatus feature of t the disclosure, the primary object of the invention is to provide a simplified form of apparatus for economically practicing the method herein featured; to provide a machine which may be readily changed so as to impose on the treated fur anyvdesired flower or The present invention features a treatment 1927. Serial No. 201,276.

characteristic and to provide a machine in and modification of treatment demanded by different types of furs.

Various other objects and advantages of the invention will be in part obvious from a consideration of the method features of the disclosure and from an inspection of the accompanying drawings and in part will be more fully set forth in the following particular description of one method of practicing the invention, and the invention also con sists in certain new and novel modifications of the preferred method and other features of construction and combinations of parts hereinafter set forth and claimed.

In the accompanying drawing, there is illustrated a form of pneumatic press particularly designed for use in practicing the method features of this disclosure and illustrating a preferred embodiment of the mechanical features of the disclosure. There is disclosed in this application only so much of the machine as is necessary to illustrate the parts particularly involved in the heating and pressing features.

In the accompanying drawing:

Fig. 1 is a View in front elevation of a portion of a complete fur treating machine with parts of the pneumatic cylinder broken away and with the fur in position just prior to the actuation of the machine on its fur compression stroke, and

Fig. 2 is a horizontal sectional view taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1 looking upwardly as indicated by the arrows and showing parts of the die and fixed jaw broken away to Show succeeding structural parts.

In the drawing there is shown a support 10 from which project two jaw guiding uprights 11 and 12 connected at their upper ends by a girder 13 and in general it is to be understood that this structure includes the necessary braces and structural parts characterizing pneumatically actuating presses, where a powerfully acting force is to be impressed on the article and over a large area of the article.

To the underside of the girder 13 is secured a hollow plate-like box 14 hereinafter referred to as the fixed jaw of the press. To the underside of the jaw 14- is demountably secured a die 15 herein illustrated to bea flat I of screws 16. The fixed jaw 14 is provided with a plurality of electric heating coils 17 designed to heat the die 15 to varying temperatures depending upon the character of the fur under treatment, upon the duration of the treatment, upon the size of the fur under treatment and upon other factors which will vary from time to time such as the surrounding climatic conditions. The heating device is controlled from a switch box 18 in turn supplied with current from the house lighting circuit or other source of electric energy through leads 19 and 20.

The under or work side 21 of the die 15 is cast etched, cut, or otherwise formed to contain the negative 22 of the character or flower which is desired to be formed on the pile or hair side 23 of the fur 24; shown in edge elevation in Fig. 1. It is intended that there be supplied with each machine a set of dies having different designs on each of their faces; one design for instance simulating the flower characterising Persian lamb, others having the design characterizing beaver, muskrat, broadtail, and the like, so that the same machine may be readily and quickly changed to give different characteristies to the fur under treatment simply by replacing the die previously on the machine with the proper die to give the desired configuration to the hair under treatment.

Mounted on the support 10 is a pneumatic cylinder 25 opened at its upper end and provided with a pressure gauge 26. Slidably mounted in the cylinder is a piston 27 to the upper end of the stem 28 of which is secured the wide, flat movable jaw 29 of the press. Opposite ends of the jaw 29 are provided with yokes 30 which sli dably engage the up 1 rights 11 and 12 and cooperate therewith in guiding the movable plate 29 relative to the fixed jaw and its associated die plate;

It is a feature of this disclosure that the cylinder 25, piston and movable jaw be formed of metal or some other heat conducting material as it is intended to utilize the piston lifting fluid in the cylinder as a cooling means for maintaining the movable jaw 29 at a temperature not materially greater than the surrounding atmospheric or room temperature. Accordingly there is supplied to the intake conduit 31 leading to the cylinder 29 cold water or other cold fluid usually employed in actuating pneumatic presses. The intake 31 is provided with a spring controlled non-return valve 32 for use in those situations where the pressure on the fur is to be maintained over a material length of time. The cylinder 25 is provided with a discharge conduit 33 for releasing fluid from the cylinder. This discharging of pressure is controlled by a valve 34L and which valve is in turn controlled either manually or by mechanism forming no part of the present disclosure. It is understood that releasing the fluid. pressure permits the movable plunger to fall and with it to carry the movable jaw back to its initial position, shown in Fig. 1.

In operation and assuming that the proper die is in position and that it has been heated to the desired temperature for the particular skin. under treatment, the skin 24 is laid on the movable jaw 29 with its skin side 35 downward resting on the jaw and with its hair side 23 facing up ardly. By means of a. suitable control (not shown) cold water or other piston actuating fluid is admitted through the conduit 31 and this acts on the piston to raise the movable jaw upwardly, carrying with it the fur which is pressed into engagement with the side of the die. The fur is maintained in pressing engagement with the die for varying periods of time and until the hairs have been set by the die in permanent position.

On most types of fur, the upper or hair side is wetted while in the position shown in Fig. 1, preferably with water, before being pressed into engagement with the hotdie. This will mean that if the pressing operation is continued for a suflicient length of time there will be generated between the skin side of the fur and the face of the die small particles of steam which will assist in molding the hair into the configuration impressed upon them by the die in a manner quite similar to the treatment of a persons hair in a permanent hair waving operation.

While it is desirable to thus heat treat the hair side of the fur, it is most objectionable to similarly heat the skin side of the fur. Any extensive heat treatment of the skin causes it to dry out, to wrinkle, especially under the tendency of the die to distort the same from its natural position. The skin loses its life and otherwise deleteriously affects the value of the skin. Accordingly the present disclosure features in so far as is physically possible an intense heating of the hair side to give the desired set to the hair and the maintaining of the skin side at such a temperature as will not effect the desirable characteristic of the finished and dressed skin.

As one example of a method which has been practiced efiiciently, a cheap grade of prepared fur known 011 the market as Italian lamb, and which has a dull, uniform appear ance has been subjected to the treatment herein described to simulate the flower characterizing Persian lamb. In some cases where the hair side of this and other classes of fur used in this art is not smooth, or has a nap which is too long for the succeeding treatment, it is preferable to shear off the longer hairs and otherwise trim sov as to produce a flat nap.

In this treatment, the method was carried out at a temperature of approximately 212 Fahrenheit under a pressure of about too lbs. per sq. in., which was maintained for about Hill four seconds. There resulted from this treatment a fur having an artificially formed flower, visually resembling Persian lamb and in which the hairs were permanently set and were not disarranged even when the design was subjected to a vigorous brushing.

I claim:

1. In the art of treating furs to give a flower or character to the hair side, the method which consists in wetting the hair side of the fur, embossing said hair side of said wet fur with markings of a pattern of said flower, maintaining said embossing action at a temperature sufficiently high to generate steam on the wetted side of the fur, continuing said action for a time suificient to cause the hair side of the fur to acquire the desired markings while maintaining the reverse or skin side of the fur at a temperature below that at which the skin would be deleteriously affected.

2. In the art of treating the hair side of fur to give it a flower or character different from its natural appearance, the method which consists in embossing said hair side with markings of a pattern of the desired character in the presence of steam acting on the hairs to set the same into the desired form, while maintaining the skin side of the fur at a temperature substantially that of the prevailing atmospheric temperature.

3. The method of producing fur which consists in embossing the hair side of a dressed fur with markings of a pattern, while heating said hair side, maintaining said embossing action until the hair is permanently set into the desired configuration, and simultaneously subjecting the skin side of the fur to a cooling treatment.

4. The process of treating a fur to impartto it an appearance of a different natural fur, which consists in taking a skin having thereon, short hairs upon its haired side, and embossing the said haired side of said skin with markings of a pattern corresponding to the natural fur to be imitated while subjecting said hair side to the action of steam and at a temperature lower than that at which a burning of the fur would take place.

5. The process of treating a natural fur to impart to it an appearance of a difierent natural fur, which consists in taking a natural skin having short or smooth hairs upon its haired side and embossing the said haired side of said skin at a temperature less than that at which the hair side would be burned with markings of a pattern corresponding to the natural fur to be imitated while physically displacing hairs at points from their natural positions.

6. An article of manufacture constituting a natural fur having a short hair nap on one side, free of anyburned showing, with the reverse or skin side in the flat natural condition characterizing fur skins, said article having an artificially formed character or flower on its hair side, certain of the hairs forming said character or flower being physically displaced from their natural position, but otherwise in their natural condition, and said hairs being permanently set in their displaced positions and certain other hairs being in their natural position.

Signed at New York in the county of New York, and State of New York this 21st day of June, A. D. 1927.

MENDEL LAZOW. 

